Mariya and Nathan's Amazing Asian Honeymoon: Keeping amused on the sea days and visiting Hong Kong

We now have 2 sea days with us docking in Hong Kong at 8pm on the second day. We have decided to spend the first day exploring the ship and after another leisurely breakfast (sadly once again we were sat with people that did nothing but whine! "The service on this ship is terrible! I even have to go to the bar and order my own drinks!") we head up to the sports deck and have a game of mini golf, it was lots of fun and there were a lot of people up there enjoying it is well. Nathan beat me so I reserved the right for a rematch ;)

Then down to the video arcade where we played air hockey, Time Crisis, some crazy quad bike racing game and played Guitar Hero :)

We decided to treat ourselves to one of the specialty restaurants for lunch and chose Giovanni's Table, an Italian retaurant. For a cover charge of $15pp you can order whatever you like from the 3 courses available. The menu sounded wonderful and we were looking forward to some good italian and ordered 3 entrees to share: antipasti, cured beef and caprese salad. Nathan wasn't a fan of the anitpasti when the anchovies leaked into almost everything else on the plate and I was disappointed that the cured beef was 3 slices the size of the palm of my hand and so thin they were see through on a HUGE bowl of arugula. The caprese was excellent though as the mozzerella and the aged balsamic they use on the ship is lovely.

We followed this with 4 mains dishes to share: Mushroom Risotto, Baked Jumbo Shrimp, Chicken Breast stuffed with Ricotta and Spinach and wrapped in Prosciutto and Veal Meatballs in a rich Tomato Sauce.
This might sound like a LOT of food but the serves were very small, 4 prawns in the shrimp dish, 2 small pieces of chicken and 2 meatballs! Sort of lucky though as the meatballs were horrible! And the rich tomato sauce ended up being nothing but chopped tomatoes, very disappointing.
Moving on to dessert and the cannoli was a good choice but overall I wouldn't spend the money again. $15pp is very cheap but when you consider we had already prepaid a meal for lunch it certainly wasn't good value as the main dining room food that is included has been excellent.

Today was also the first ice skating show, Ice Under the Big Top so straight after lunch we went to join the line as it was first come, first served. When we couldn't find the end of the line we figured we would just go back to our cabin and check out the 2^nd showing instead ;)

Back in the cabin I thought it would be nice to lay down and relax a little....and of course Nathan and I immediately fell asleep but luckily woke up 15 minutes before we were meant to queue for the 2^nd show! I held our spot and Nathan headed off to get us hot chocolates :)
We managed to get front row seats and the ice skating show was brilliant!! I forgot to take my camera so have no pictures to show but it truly was spectacular, they had it all, clowns, acrobats, lion tamers...and all done on ice skates!

After the ice show it was time for dinner followed by another show in the Savoy Theatre. Tonight it was an Australian pianist called John Darsk, with a little bit of Liberace style he did a show from classical to Billy Joel to comedy and even a number on the violin which had everyone clapping and stamping their feet. We really enjoyed this one and after such an action packed day we were ready for bed :)

Our cabin steward has been doing towel animals for me and here are a couple of new ones :)

Day 5 dawns and we head to the MDR for breakfast and this time are given a table for two! Hooray! It's nice to be able to wake up a little slower and not have to listen to anyone complaining!

After breakfast we check out the days activites and decide we will enter the Mini Golf Tournament :) The gale that was blowing over Deck 13 changed our minds for us and we headed off to play a game of Bingo instead. After my $190 win we were happy that we did!

Today we are trying another specialty restaurant, Johnny Rockets, an American Diner/Burger Joint. Again there was a cover charge (only $4.95pp) and you can order whatever you like from the entree, main and dessert menus. Drinks are extra but when we see that there is an old fashioned soda fountain and milkshake options we decide to get drinks as well :)

To start the waiter brought out a big basket of chips and onion rings with a mega bowl of aioli then drew a smiley face on our plate with sauce, very cute :)
We decided not to order any entrees (bowl of chilli, bacon cheese fries etc) as we were looking forward to the burgers.
Nathan and I ordered a burger each (pretty sure his was called a Route 66, love the old American style) and a couple of drinks. His chocolate milkshake was decadent and my vanilla coke had so much vanilla syrup in it I was in danger of developing instant type 2 diabetes...so wonderful! The burgers were hot and juicy and we enjoyed themso much that we ordered another burger to share.
Dessert was a choice of apple pie or icecream sundaes and we both chose the latter. I also ordered a chocolate coke that sent my heart racing and had me bouncing off the walls for the rest of the afternoon ;)
While you are eating, 50's style rock music is playing and the staff come out and do cheesey dances! They actually get right into it and look like they enjoy it :)

The rest of the day was lazy and cruisey, we donated a little to the casino and laid around our cabin and watched a couple of movies. After dinner we are docking in Hong Kong and want to have some energy to go out and explore!

We arrive for dinner at 6.30 for our regular table where our head waiter is Michael and assistant waiter is Elizabeth. It took a few nights to find an area of the dining room where were were happy with the table location and the waiters but now that we have found them we have booked this table for the rest of the cruise. Tonight however there is bedlam in the dining room! Although we are not even docking til 8pm and will be lucky to disembark by 9pm, everyone is desperately cramming into the dining room for an early dinner! Our table has been given away and the bookings waiter tries to put us in another area. One of the regular staff from the area noticed and quickly decided to dismantle a table for 4 that was still available so we didn't have to wait or go to another area. We take our time and have a nice slow dinner then wander to the deck to watch as we dock. With 8000 skyscrapers the skyline of Hong Kong is amazing! Lights and neons everywhere, buildings where the lights turn on and off in sequence to look like waterfalls or form patterns.

We wait for the call to disembark then wander out to the dock. We find a double decker bus offereing a Hong Kong by night tour and manage to get the front seat on the top deck! We spend 2 hours driving through Kowloon and Mong Kok, down Nathan Road, seeing the Ladies Markets, the Jade Markets, the restaurants and all the lights before heading back to the ship :)

We go to bed that night excited about the prospect of heading back into Hong Kong in the morning!

Day 6 and there is no sleeping in today! We are up at 8.30 and ready for breakfast :)

We are seated with a good group today and everyone is looking forward to heading off for the day. The night before we had picked up some brochures and found a free shuttle service that would take us to the Cu Chin Gardens, a Buddhist Nunnery and a huge shopping complex.

After checking out the gardens and nunnery we found the local train station and took a train back to Mong Kok, the district we visited the night before. We wandered around and found Nathan Road, the road for the best shopping in Hong Kong and revisited the Ladies Markets before catching a train back to town and finding a restaurant for an authentic Chinese Dim Sum lunch.